NEWS

Though I never officially announced the purchase of the old carriage house across the street from eMbers, there really wasn’t a need as in our little city, everyone knew already. The question I do get asked, however, is the obvious “What are you going to do with it?”. It is fun making outrageous claims like an “exotic fruit market” and such but the truth of the matter is, honesty, I don’t know.

The next obvious question of course is “If you don’t know what you’re doing with it, why did you buy it?” When we moved to Rensselaer ten (ish) years ago, this was the building that absolutely fascinated me. Surrounded by asphalt and unfortunate buildings, it stood out as a piece of Rensselaer history that seemed destined to become “history”. This fear became a bit more real when I received a text message while on holiday that “the building I loved was getting torn down”. After a bit of research, I learned that it wasn’t immediate, but it was inevitable that the carriage house would be destroyed.

What used to be upstairs…

The previous owners (Fendig Children's’ Theater) are absolutely wonderful people doing wonderful things for this community but they simply didn’t have the means to save the building. When I purchased it from them, I didn’t have a magic snap of the finger and a team appears to repair it. That costs money that I don’t have. We purchased it in hopes that with our own hard work and creative abilities, that we could repair and make it a beautiful focal point in our downtown. Our simple hope right now is saving the building.

A beautiful skylight…

To say I don’t have ideas and plans for the building wouldn’t be entirely true. One thing that stands out in my mind is that I really want it to be a special thing for our customers whom have helped support our VENUE and STATION. With this in mind, it wouldn’t be a place for the open public. Once again, I don’t know exactly what it would be and I really don’t want to focus too much energy on those thoughts until I know for sure it can be saved.

Looking at eMbers VENUE from the carriage house

This really is a great building and I am cautiously optimistic in our abilities to restore it. I won’t be sharing updates on the process or photos with this one (other than on this post). Instead, I want my guests to be completely surprised with the design and function of the space. Just share the hope that it won’t collapse with me inside it as I work on it....